


This Wasn't the Usual Summoning

by TheItalianScribe (TheIcyMage)



Series: Transcendence AU [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: I mean, Incomplete, It is complete in the sense that it has a beginning middle and end, Rough Draft, Transcendence AU, but it is not edited enough to be called complete to my satisfaction, gravity falls transcendece au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 16:06:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4967404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyMage/pseuds/TheItalianScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This wasn't a usual fic, either.<br/>Alcor is summoned by a couple to help their sick daughter. How can something so simple be so off?</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Wasn't the Usual Summoning

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to try something new. This is a rough draft. At one point, there are two sections of text bracketed with {} and marked as (alt1) and (alt2.) I couldn't decide if Alcor should be able to fulfill the deal (I will explain in the notes at the end, but it should make sense in context) or if he can only do part of the deal. For alt1, he can't and tries to explain. For alt2, he can and just proceeds to make the deal. Please leave a review to tell me which alt you like better, as well as any other changes you think I should make. I will really appreciate it and will credit you in the updated version. Thank you.

This wasn’t the usual place he was summoned. The clean, pure atmosphere and bright, inviting window-light of day made him feel out of place in the otherwise hopeful, serene scene. This wasn’t the usual summoning circle he was floating above. The smell of warm cake and burnt icing wafted to his nose from directly below him. Was that a signature confection from his great nephew, Baker? He looked down at the sure enough Summoner’s Full Delight cupcake and contemplated breaking out of the projected circle so he could pick up the pastry and eat it. A pair of gasps broke him from his thoughts. He shot his head at the source.

“It worked.” A woman with green eyes and long, wavy hair stared back at him in disbelief.  
“Good,” next to her, a man with spiky black hair let his shoulders shake with a sigh of relief, “let’s hope the next part works as well.”  
The woman looked into her, judging by the matching rings and pairs of hands clasped together tightly, husband’s eyes sadly for a moment. Her husband stared back with wet eyes. While the couple had a silent conversation, Alcor took in his surroundings. The clean floors and sterile air confirmed his suspicions of where they were. Next to the couple, a girl was tucked into white sheets on a metal bed. Her dark, wavy hair was splayed messily under her head and her thin form rose and fell slowly. Plastered to her face and body were a plethora of tubes and one mask that pricked him with sharp memories of long ago. She looked young, just a bit younger than his kindergartener niece. Fighting back memories of a niece in the same age and position, he cleared his throat.

The husband looked back at him as if he were detached from the moment, but began in a shaky voice, “Alcor the Protector,” (That was a new one. He would have to be a bit more careful about his reputation.) “Normally we wouldn’t resort to this, but we’ve tried everything. You’re our last hope.”  
“We heard you take mercy on children. Maybe you’ll hear the parents out? Our daughter has been suffering from asthma since she was a baby. We’re fortunate enough to have modern medicine, otherwise she wouldn’t survive birth.”  
“She has been fighting it all her life, and hadn’t had an attack for two years, but…”  
The husband’s voice trailed. Alcor stared at them. Choking at the awkward air, the wife picked up where her husband left off.  
“...This attack broke her lucky streak, an... it’s her...w o rst yet.” her voice broke, yet she picked up the fragments of speech and spread them out for Alcor. “The...doctor said.... said they may get worse...if they get worse….she won’t last…. won’t last for long.”  
The husband recovered as the wife broke into sobs.  
“Can you fix her lungs and make sure she never dies from asthma?”

He blinked. Then looked from the plastic container left open at the woman’s feet to the pastry beneath his own. The man was holding a slip of paper with some icing caked on the margin. He recognized the parchment and realized just where the hospital was. Looking back at the couple, he noticed a few tells that screamed tourist. The woman was dressed too warm and a pamphlet for the Library poked out of the man’s pocket. To top it off, both the man and woman were wearing hiking boots.  
“First, don’t let a demon know how desperate you are,” he lectured. Silently, Alcor made a mental note that he needed to have a chat with Baker about what he should and shouldn’t tell tourists. Still, he had to admire the kid’s marketing instincts. And be worried about how much he was rubbing off on his nephew.  
“They won’t hesitate to use your desperation to screw you over. Second, be careful of your wording. If I were to ‘fix’ her lungs by setting them up to collapse, she would not die from asthma and I would get what I want for minimal effort. Third, what’s in it for me because, unlike other demons, I won’t let a child die, especially not in front of her clearly caring parents, and this will take a lot of work.”  
“If you cure her asthma, we will give you these.” The wife dried her eyes, reached into her purse, and pulled out a 24 unit package of Baker’s chocolate bars. She lifted the thin cardboard lid to reveal the bundle inside. Alcor licked his lips. Having tested the most recent batch, Alcor knew he couldn’t refuse the offer. 

{(Alt 1)“That won’t be enough to replace your daughter’s lungs with new, asthma-free ones, but it is enough to mostly cure it.”  
“‘Mostly?’” The parents echoed him in unison, one was looking at him skeptically and the other was glancing at their daughter’s frail body.  
“Your doctors must have told you this before; when your daughter has an attack, the air tubes swell and her cells produce more mucus. I can make it so the tubes don’t swell, which will let her breathe, but the mucus will still give her a cough.”}

{(Alt2)  
He held his hand out to the couple, “You’ve got yourselves a deal.”}

Together, they rose from the plastic chairs and walked hand-in-hand toward the demon. They each reached out a free hand toward Alcor’s. Shrugging, he let them each grip half of his hand. The blue fire that ran across his arm split in two smaller, lighter flames. Each trailed down an arm and bounced like a wave back to where the three hands met. As soon as they all let go, the mother walked back to the bed to retrieve the box. She nearly dropped it when she turned back to see the demon step, or rather float, off of the circle. He set took the package from her and set it aside. Neither parent moved as he stepped to where her daughter lay. Carefully, he rested a hand over her ribs, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. 

\------  
Breathe in…..The motions were familiar. Even after all these years, he fell into the rhythm with a tired practice. Breathe out….

Breathe in with his lungs and send the air with a small dose of healing magic to the young girl. Breathe out and let the fall of her chest sync with the fall of his own chest. Breathe in and send a bit more magic into her core, but not enough to rehash what happened to…. Breathe out and ignore the glimpse he caught of her soul. Breathe in and focus on the job at hand and how she needs to live. She needs to live again. Breathe out and prepare to work on her lungs. Breathe in and carefully strengthen the lungs and try the best even though body magic isn’t his specialty. There was no way he was recommending them to another demon. The deal was set and he would work out of his comfort zone for his….his client. His client whose hair was black, not red. Who had not one freckle. Who only had asthma and her…. Breath out.

In spite of his best efforts, the moment carried more familiarity than the memories it brought or the coincidental similarities he noticed. When it ended, he looked at the payment and tried to decide if the candy bars were too much or too little for what he had just done. His summoners were too focused on him to care if he left or lingered. Why should he linger? After all, the job was done and he would get nothing more out of it. He glanced back at the family just as the girl’s eyes cracked open and he noticed something in the way she looked at her parents who, though they must have put brave faces on, had concern written all over them in yellows and puces that only…  
“Mom...Dad? What’s wrong?”  
“Oh, W-”  
He left the scene. Even if he heard the name, he wouldn’t want to remember it. Normally, it was easy to forget the names and faces he learned in summons. He wished it were the case there, that he wouldn’t have to carry this new identity with him and know who it once was. Those wishes were in vain, he knew it. After all…

This wasn’t the usual summons.

Tags: Transcendence AU, Gravity Falls Transcendence AU, Gravity Falls, Gravity Falls fanfiction, Scribed in Ice, Alcor the Dream Bender, Dipper Pines, Mentions of Baker, You know that one submission about sweets made specifically for summoning Alcor?, Well Baker is the niblet who made it happen, Mentions of Aileen, though she wasn’t named here and won’t appear by the time I post this, and I guess this next tag is inevitable, R!Willow

**Author's Note:**

> The reason I was on the fence about this is that Dipper couldn't do anything to help with Willow's asthma. Granted, this does take place a few generations later, so he would be more powerful. However, it didn't feel fair to bring up Willow and have him cure something he couldn't cure for his niece.


End file.
